RIP Vin Scully

[UPChip]

Dammit.

 

[PCLoadLetter]

The voice of my childhood. RIP.

Vin was the best.

 

[HanSenSE]

Unfortunately true.
EDIT: Helene's moving it in takes.

 

[Deskgrunt50]

What a career. What a life. Legend. RIP.

 

[MTM]

Rick Monday just announced it on the radio and I could hear him choking up.

So sad. Vin probably had more influence on my life than anyone outside of my family. I grew up wanting to be him starting when I was 10 in 1970 and he went another 45 seasons.

RIP to the greatest.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

Now he’s reunited with Angie.

RIP.

 

[UPChip]

The voice of my childhood. RIP.

Vin was the best.

Ernie Harwell, whose jump to the Polo Grounds opened up Vin's spot with the Dodgers, was mine. (This is why @maumann might be my favorite poster)

Just this afternoon, I was watching the Kirk Gibson home run in the 1984 World Series, which was an NBC series. Vin laid out for the entire last at-bat, and yet he had enough stories to fill hours at a time. He did everything and nothing, and everything in between.

What a voice, what a spirit, what a legend. Damn.

 

[playthrough]

The greatest. RIP.

 

[BitterYoungMatador2]

“And look who’s coming up…..”

Vin and Joe felt like two of your uncles dropping by every Saturday.

RIP

 

[UPChip]

My favorite Vin story is a little PG. The Tigers were at Dodger Stadium for an interleague series and Torii Hunter came up.

Apparently Hunter's dad had gotten into drugs and took Torii's favorite jacket. When he came home off a bender, Torii took the jacket to school and raised his hand in class and ...

"He raised his hand and a crack ... pipe, is that what you call it, fell out? A crack pipe?"

Someone had to explain that one to him.

 

[Spartan Squad]

Man smart a rough week for icons. There are few announcers who could even begin to sniff the career Vin had. A voice you instantly knew.

RIP

 

[Corky Ramirez up on 94th St.]

Today, I watched a random baseball game in my collection ... Yankees at Red Sox, Sept. 17, 1988. It was an NBC Game of the Week, so Vin Scully and Joe Garagiola were on the call.

Lou Piniella played the game under protest because of a fan interference call. Just before they went to commercial, Vin goes, "In the land of the bean and the cod, we got rhubarb." And I thought that was pretty clever. And then this news a few hours later.

To this 12-year-old at the time, listening to those two were such a big part of my childhood. As a baseball diehard, and especially of the Red Sox, Saturdays were usually the only chance I had to watch baseball because the antenna on our roof in eastern Connecticut could not get Ch. 38 out of Boston (yet, sadly, I could get Ch. 11 and Ch. 9 out of New York, and even Ch. 17 out of Philadelphia. What a kick in the nuts). So it was Ken Coleman and Joe Castiglione for six days of the week on radio and Vin and Joe for Saturdays.

Many people will bring up Sandy's perfect game, Kirk's home run (both of them), Dwight Clark's catch, perhaps even golf. And rightfully so. But to me, the NBC Game of the Week was so special for so many reasons, and the biggest was listening to Vin's call from Fenway.

Godspeed.

 

[MTM]

Aaron’s 715, The Catch, Gibson’s home run and hundreds of other Dodgers moments. Vin called them all.

 

[ChrisLong]

I covered the Dodgers from 1981-83 for the Santa Monica Evening Outlook. I knew Vin pretty well, but we did not exactly pal around. One thing I noticed was that you never saw him on the road. He was always on the bus to and from the game, and at the ballpark. Yes, you saw him then. But never before or after. He never hung out in the hotel lobby or in nearby coffee shops. He must have had room service for every meal.

My paper circulated to Pacific Palisades, where he lived, so he read it. One time, I caught a foul ball in the press box and he said over the air, "Nice catch by Chris Long of the Santa Monica Evening Outlook."

One road trip took us from Chicago to St. Louis. A Sunday game in Chicago, then a short flight to St. Louis. There was not much happening in St. Louis in Sundays. I finished my work and went down the hotel bar at the Marriott. And guess who comes off the elevator and into the bar? Vin Scully. I had never seen this before. There were only a couple of people in there. He came right up to me and said, "Can I sit here and buy you a beer?" Me: "Uhhhhh, of course, yes, thank you."

Sidebar: There is a genetic eye disease called Retinitis Pigmentosa. No cure. It is the opposite of macular degeneration in that your peripheral vision deteriorates until you barely have tunnel vision, then you go blind. This condition runs rampant through my family. My mom was one of six sisters and four of them had it. My brother has it, lots of cousins have it. Anyway, I heard around that time that Vin's wife, Sandi, had a brother with this disease. Vin attached his name to a fundraising campaign and we were very appreciative.

So Vin and I are sitting in the St. Louis Marriott having a beer and I told him this story, about the disease and my family. And I thanked him for getting involved with fundraising. But I had a question. The main office in L.A. was in Century City. I just wondered why they have expensive office space in Century City when there are cheaper places available in other cities around the area. He said, hmmm, I never thought about that. And that was the end of it ..... I thought.

About 2 weeks later, back at Dodger Stadium, the press box usher came to me at my seat and said that Mr. Scully wanted to talk to me. I went over to his booth. He said, "Chris, remember when you told me about Retinitis Pigmentosa and the office in Century City." I said yes. He said, "Well I check it and that office is donated."

I was floored. With all he has on his mind, he remembered what I had said. He actually checked on it and got back to me. Awesome individual. The voice we grew up with.

RIP, sir.

 

[Typist Clerk]

The best. And at least in baseball, there is no second.

 

[HanSenSE]

A certain irony that the Dodgers are playing the Giants tonight.

MTM posted "The Catch" utopic. Scully also had the call on the other great moment (not counting the earthquake) at Candlestick in the 80s, Will Clark's hit off Mitch Williams in the 1989 NLCS.

And he did his last game in 2016 from then-AT&T Park.

 

[DanOregon]

The voice of Oregon State, Mike Parker grew up a huge Vin Scully fan - and i flipped to the summer league game he was calling (he hadn't heard yet), to say he gave a moving tribute is an understatement, explaining that Scully made him want to be a sports announcer and shared various stories of his youth, hearing him for the first time, meeting him for the first time etc. All while never missing a pitch or play of this 10-0 summer league game. Vin would have been proud.

 

[HanSenSE]

 

[MTM]

 

[UPChip]

Let's pick a night, maybe Friday, and after every team's regular game, re-air a game Vin called that involves their team. Maybe it's vs. the Dodgers, maybe a national broadcast, maybe famous, maybe not. Let everyone put him under their pillow one last time.

The only complications I see are possibly the Rays, though even they've had to play at Dodger Stadium a few times while he was working, and the fact that the Cubs are at home Friday doing one of their usual matinees, against the Marlins.